I recently went away skiing for 5 days. Everyone keeps telling me that soon I won't be able to go away at all. Like never. So I went skiing before the madness begins, although it has sort of already begun but apparently it gets worse. (By the way a skiing trip with a 5 year old, a partner who is a keener and more daring skier than you, and a resort that is 2000m high which means it's impossible to sleep as you haven't adjusted to the altitude, does not prepare you for a long season of manual labour).
Whilst we were away, James' mum kindly offered to feed Coco the cat. A full-time job given that Coco's stomach is a bottomless pit and she soon won't be able to fit through the cat flap. But what she didn't sign up for was bare root d-day. Basically, a million bare roots were delivered whilst I was away.
Daily calls and messaging ensued, when we discussed where the hell to put the bloody things, whether there was going to be a frost, whether we should take them out of water, whether we should put them back in water, whether we should sing them a lullaby at night....
In case you are reading this for useful advice, this is what you ideally should do when bare roots arrive:
- remove all packaging asap and soak overnight in a bucket of water
- if you cannot plant them straight out then you can 'heel' them in. This is creating a shallower hole for them and planting them on their side until you can get them into their final resting place.
- if small bare roots such as geums, plant them into pots and get them a little bit more established before putting them into their final resting place.
What a legend James' Mum is. She kept them all alive and earned herself a lot of Swiss chocolate. Note to self, check with suppliers that deliveries will NOT come when you are next away. That said I apparently won't be going away until 2030.